For 30 years, Lake City Center has served the social, nutritional and educational needs of senior citizens. More than 300 people utilize the facility and services each day.

When the center that supports so many needed help, just weeks before Christmas, the community stepped up.

The center’s 21-year-old freezer needed repairs. The furnace stopped working. The commercial gas range, donated to the center in 1997, also went kaput.

“It was critically important to get a new range,” said Bob Small, Lake City Center director. “That was the heart and soul of the kitchen.”

Lake City Center provides hot, nutritious meals four days per week and delivers daily meals to more than 100 homebound and disabled seniors. Between the Meals on Wheels program and the seniors who come to the center, the staff cooks for about 150 people each day.

“Seniors rely on these meals,” Small said. “I didn’t know what we were going to do if we couldn’t raise enough money to get the range.”

But a new range would cost thousands of dollars that the center simply didn’t have.

Jan Noyes, Ombudsman Assistant with the Area Agency on Aging, described Lake City Center’s troubles in a letter to the editor that was published in The Press.

The impact was immediate. Donations poured in, Small said.

“The community was absolutely incredible,” he said.

Lake City Center received almost $8,000 in donations, which covered the purchase and installation of a new commercial gas range.

Small said that the new range better suits the center’s needs. It has more burners and a smaller griddle, so staff can prepare food more efficiently.

“We can’t thank the community enough for what they’ve done,” Small said. “Hopefully, they’ll continue to support us in the future.”